Conventional video cameras have involved a problem in that, when flare is generated due to diffused reflection in the optical system and on the camera face, the black level of video signal tends to increase, reducing the image contrast.
Recently, to prevent this problem, a flare compensation circuit and a black level correction (DBS) circuit have been proposed, in which the black level is decreased during a time of low contrast due to flare generation to improve the contrast.
However, these flare compensation and DBS circuits have been defective in that, if the black level correction is always effected, the black level is decreased also at an exposure correction such as backlight correction, which results in an insufficient exposure correction effect. Further, if the black level is decreased when the AGC gain is high, an S/N ratio of dark portions tends to be considerably degraded.
On the other hand, a conventional black level correction circuit detects an average value of video signals, and varies the black level in proportion to the average value. Therefore, the black level correction tends to be excessive or insufficient, which results in an insufficient improvement of the contrast.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a video camera which solves the above described problems in conventional video cameras.